Following some passionate discussions at the Anna Maria planning and zoning board's Jan. 6 public hearing on amendments to the city’s retail-office-residential district, public comments at the city commission’s Jan. 8 first reading of the ordinance were mild in comparison.

Anna Maria’s planning and zoning board at a Jan. 6 public hearing agreed to a number of amendments to the city’s retail-office-residential ordinance, including a recommendation that ROR structures no longer have to be owner occupied.

Mark Alonso of Anna Maria may have lost his November bid for a city commission seat, but he’s become something of a Tampa Bay celebrity the past few weeks over his refusal to remove some signs from his bicycles.

A proposed financial raid on a state endowment fund to benefit seniors and children may still take place, but now under the promise that the money taken will be returned as soon as federal stimulus funds are received in Florida.